Shadows Past
by ShiningOwl
Summary: There's a new ghost in Amity Park; at the same time Danny's a little miffed that a new kid is catching Sam's eye. Not to mention ghost breakouts are through the roof, which worries the gang that something big might be coming.
1. The new kid at Casper High

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own any material copyrighted by Butch Hartman. Alex is my own character.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ok, this is my first time writing on , but this is not my first time writing a fanfic. This is actually the fourth time I have re-written this fanfic - I had the previous versions up on Fanart Central, but I wanted to put this version up of because it's a community dedicated to fanfiction writing. One thing I should mention, I am notorious for not updating my stories for extended periods of time because once the school year starts, I get very very busy! However, I will put every spare moment of time I have to updating my stories and adding new chapters.

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CHAPTER 1: The new kid at Casper High

Tucker and Sam were waiting by a tree at the edge of Casper High's front yard, when they saw Danny get out of Jazz's car.

"Rough night?" Sam asked Danny sarcastically with a smirk as he walked up to them. Danny just frowned because she and Tucker both knew that Skulker had gotten out last night, and he had also gotten some "upgrades", so Danny was out until about 3 AM capturing him.

"I swear, all of this late-night ghost hunting is really wearing me out. I've only barely passed the last three tests we've had because I can barely hold my head up high enough off of the desk to read the questions!" Danny exclaimed. Sam and Tucker sighed. They both hated having to see Danny Fenton depressed because Danny Phantom was always so busy. All three of them hoped that these late-night ghost breakouts wouldn't last much longer.

Sam looked out at the road, wondering how the day would be, when she noticed a taxi cab drive up to the school. The door opened and a boy got out, carrying a back pack over one shoulder. He took a piece of paper out of his pocket, looked at it, looked at the school, then closed the cab's door, payed the driver, and started walking toward the school. Sam thought he looked to be about their age; he was thin, tall (maybe a couple inches taller than Danny), had dark blue eyes and kind of short, brown hair. He wore dark-blue jeans, a dark-gray tee-shirt with a picture of a large black pair of headphones on it, and he wore a small silver amulet, strung on a thin silver chain, with a sapphire in the middle that almost seemed to glow. Danny noticed that Sam was staring at something behind him, and turned to see what it was.

"Who's the new kid?" Danny asked. Sam shrugged, and the bell rang, so they started walking to the school. Danny turned them all intangible so they could easily get through the stampede of people at the school's doors, and turned tangible again in an empty hallway. "See you in Math." Danny said to Sam before they parted. Sam nodded, and headed off to English with Mr. Lanser.

She got to the room, and sat down. The usual morning buzz was going around with a few little "I think I've seen him before," "Do you think he'll be in this room?" and "Do you think he's good at football?" type conversations floating around as well. Then the new kid walked in, followed by Mr. Lanser, and sat down in the empty desk next to Sam. There was a brief pause in the chatter as everyone saw him come in, then it started back up, even louder than before. "Alright people, quiet down," Mr. Lanser said, getting the class's attention. "As you may have noticed, we have a new student joining Casper High today. Please welcome Alex Sandry." The chatter started up again with even more force. "However! That is no reason why you should be talking any more than a normal day!" Mr. Lanser said to get the class's attention once more, and they settled down. "Now, would you please take out your text books and turn to page 312, Shakespeare's first published work. Alex, you can use one of the ones on the shelf over there." Mr. Lanser continued, and turned to the chalkboard to write. Alex went over, got a textbook, sat back down at his desk, and rested his cheek on his fist as he turned the pages.

— — —

Second period came and went, then everyone had Phys Ed. Today, everyone was doing long-distance running. And as always, Sam was totally smoking Danny and Tucker on the track.

"Come on guys! Kick it up a gear or two!" Sam said to them while jogging backwards as she came up to pass them, again. "You'd think all of that flying around and ghost hunting would give you a little more endurance, wouldn't you?" Sam said to Danny who just glared at her and continued to huff and puff as he tried to keep jogging. Sam just grinned slightly, turned around, and kept running.

Sam was just about to close her fifth lap when Alex, the new kid, passed her. At first, Sam was a little surprised just because she didn't expect him to pass her on the track. But that was prejudging, and prejudice was for shallow morons. But, as she saw him pass, she tripped and fell right on her knee - hitting it hard and scraping it open on the gravel.

"Sam!" she heard Danny yell from the opposite end of the track.

_Why the heck did I trip?_ she thought to herself as she got up and tried to stand on her now bleeding right knee. It gave way, and she almost collapsed, but someone caught her by the arm. She looked up to see who it was, and it was Alex.

"Want a little help?" he asked her with a friendly look,

"Uhhh, thanks, but I think I'll be fine." Sam replied politely. Alex let go of her arm, and Sam tried to limp over to Ms. Teslaff. But as soon as she put a little too much pressure on her right leg, her knee gave way and she fell to the ground.

Alex walked over to her and asked, "You sure?" Sam looked up at him and breathed out heavily.

"Okay, I guess I need a little help." Sam admitted. Alex helped her up, then put her right arm over his shoulder and put his left arm around her to support her. They hobbled over to Ms. Teslaff (luckily since they were near the beginning of the track, they didn't have very far to go), who said they could go to the nurse, then they hobbled over to the school.

"Sorry for making you trip." Alex said suddenly as they were entering the gym.

"What?" Sam asked, completely caught off guard by the apology.

"I think I startled you when I passed you out on the track. I didn't really notice you there and I should've given you a warning from behind that I was coming." Sam just looked at Alex in surprise. She had honestly not thought that his passing her would make her trip.

"Uhh, thanks, but you don't have to apologize – you didn't startle me. I think there must've been a rock or something on the track." Sam said, trying to keep the blame off of Alex. Alex looked at Sam apologetically.

"Are you sure? I really do feel bad – you had to hit your knee pretty hard there to get such a gash. You can't even walk on it!" Alex continued, still trying to pin the blame on himself.

"You really don't have to blame yourself. It wasn't your fault. It was probably me just not paying attention to the track."

"Well, how come you wouldn't be paying attention?" Alex persisted,

"Because I  Uhhhh..."

"Because I came up too close to you and startled you." Alex finished the sentence for her. Sam just rolled her eyes,

"Well, whatever. I still don't blame you." Sam said, giving up on arguing. Alex smirked slightly, victorious in proving his point.

They got to the nurse's office and told her what happened. Mrs. Pierry, the school nurse, told Sam to sit on one of the benches near her desk, and told Alex to get her an ice pack while she got some bandages. Alex went to the freezer and grabbed an ice pack, then brought it over to Sam and placed it on her knee. Sam winced as Alex pressed it to the raw skin. Alex looked up at Sam with sorry eyes.

"Oh, it's not that bad. Ice packs only hurt for the first second you put them on." Sam said to try to make Alex not feel any worse about her tripping, which she still didn't hold him responsible for.

Mrs. Pierry then walked in, carrying a gauze pad, a roll of cloth bandage, some rubbing alcohol, and some cotton balls. Alex removed the ice pack, and Mrs. Pierry swabbed some alcohol onto the gash. Sam winced again and squinted her eyes shut.

"Sorry hun, but you never know what kind of crap collects out on the track. You should see what people throw at the opposing team at football games here." Mrs. Pierry said as she wiped the alcohol off the open cut. Mrs. Pierry then opened up the gauze pad and pressed it to Sam's knee. "Here, hold this while I put the bandage around it." She said to Sam. Sam held it and Mrs. Pierry wrapped the bandage around Sam's knee until the pad was held on tightly. "You're going to want to put ice on it for a little while longer – I can see it's starting to swell up a little from hitting it. You won't be able to walk on it for a couple days, and even after that don't do anything to strain it for at least five days." Mrs. Pierry explained to Sam,

"So, my right knee is going to be out of commission for at least a week?" Sam said, sounding a little worried,

"Yes, that's right. I'll give you a crutch and a note to get you out of PE – you don't have to worry about that." Mrs. Pierry said reassuringly. Sam looked down at the floor.

_It's not PE that I'm worried about._ She thought to herself. She looked at the bandages on her knee and sighed,

"Well, I guess life's going to be pretty boring for me for the next week." Sam said quietly to herself.

"What? You don't think regular High School is already boring without a gashed knee-cap?" Alex said. Sam jerked her head up and looked at Alex, caught off guard once again.

"Um, well, I just normally do — a lot of — physical activities, after school." She replied.

"Relax, I was just joking." Alex said apologetically. Just then, Danny and Tucker burst in the door, panting like mad and almost collapsing onto the floor.


	2. Lunch

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own any material copyrighted by Butch Hartman. Alex is my own character.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, it's been almost a month, and here's chapter 2! Unfortunately, this one is also pretty uneventful, and a bit long (2000 words!), but every bit is vital if I am to get to the good parts! So, please - just hang in there - the suspense isn't too far up ahead! One thing to note, my interpretation of Amity Park's location in the US is that it's on the West Coast, in the same latitude as Massachusetts – so I'm going to place it where Eugene, Oregon currently exists. I'm explaining this because I'm going to make reference to towns that actually do exists around where I think Amity would be. You can even check on Google Maps to see where exactly I have it placed.  
Oh, and if you happen to actually be reading this story, **PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE WRITE A REVIEW!** I'd like at least some acknowledgment from the little traffic I'm getting here!

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CHAPTER 2: Lunch

"What—" Gasp, gasp, "happened?" Danny asked, holding onto the doorway for support; his chest heaving. Tucker just dropped to the floor, still out of breath.

"Well, I was running, and I tripped and gashed my knee open." Sam said, stifling a laugh as she saw Danny and Tucker falling over each other from running so much. Danny's eyes flicked inquisitively to Alex as he recognized him as the new kid.

"Okay. So—" Danny started, but fell onto the floor also. Tucker managed to get up and sit on the bench next to Sam and he, too looked at Alex questioningly.

"So, who are you, and how come you're here?" Tucker asked Alex.

"I'm Alex, the new kid, and I think I made Sam trip. I came up too close to her on the track and startled her, and she tripped. So I helped her get over to the nurse." Alex responded. Sam just roller her eyes.

"Well, he thinks he made me trip, but I think it was just a rock or something." Sam said, still trying to convince Alex otherwise.

"Well...anyways. However it happened, you tripped, hurt your knee, had to go to the nurse. How bad is it?" Danny managed to say, now sitting up on the floor, eyes flicking over to Sam and then back to Alex.

"Well, I have to use a crutch to get around for a couple days, and I can't put any heavy strain on it for at least five days after that." Sam explained, none too happy about the situation.

"Oh, so you won't be able to...uhhhh—" Danny paused, realizing that he couldn't talk about ghost hunting with Alex and the nurse in the room. He searched for words to finnish his sentence, "Help me clear out my basement...like you planned." Danny finnished, stumbling a little over his words as he chose them. Alex noticed this, and a quizzical look briefly passed over his face.

"That's too bad, but I think we'll be able to handle it without you." Tucker said, then the bell ending the period and starting lunch rang, and the stampede of kids in the hall started almost instantly.

"Sounds like we should go. Sam, are you all set?" Alex asked, still sounding a little sorry.

"Yes, for the tenth time! Don't stress yourself about it please Alex. It's not like I broke a bone or hit my head, I'll be fine." Sam said, reassuring Alex once again. Alex's expression loosened up a little bit.

"Ok, now I don't know about you guys, but if you're done apologizing, I'd like to get to lunch. All of that running worked up an appetite." Tucker said, getting up and walking over to the doorway.

"Yeah, me too. Let's go." Danny said and quickly followed him out the door. The nurse got up from her desk where she had been sitting at for the duration of the conversation with Danny and Tucker and got Sam a crutch.

"Here, just bring it back here when you're done. It's thursday today, so just keep it for the weekend." Mrs. Pierry said, handing Sam a crutch. Sam took the crutch and put it up under her right arm then thanked Mrs. Pierry.

"Do you want me to carry your books or something?" Alex asked Sam. Sam just glared at him; he could tell she was getting annoyed now. "Alright, alright! I'll stop now." Alex said and held up his hands in surrender. Sam just rolled her eyes again, got up, and started walking. Alex followed her out of the room and they both walked to the entrance to the locker rooms – they still had their Gym clothes on. Alex went into the boys' locker room, Sam went into the girls'. Of course, when Sam walked in most of the girls in her class were still changing and showering, so she was attacked by questions on what happened to her knee.

"I just tripped on a rock, okay?" Sam replied to all of the girls that were looking at her with curious eyes. She could hear some of them whispering in private gossip behind her back, and she could feel them stealing glances at her as she got to her locker. She even caught a little bit of what they were saying;

"...saw that new kid pass by her...think it had something to do with her tripping?...don't know, all I heard was Fenton scream 'Sam!' from the other end of the field..." But that was all she could catch.

_Oh great, another thing for them to gossip about._ She thought to herself, then grabbed her towel and regular clothes out of her locker and headed for an open shower.

Meanwhile, Alex went into the boys' locker room and walked over to his locker, which was about 10 lockers down from Danny and Tucker's. Danny and Tucker were chatting quietly about something but suddenly stopped as soon as they noticed Alex. Alex noticed them stop talking from behind his locker door and looked out to see why they stopped; Danny and Tucker were looking at him very conspicuously out of the corners of their eyes. Alex grabbed a towel from his locker, closed the door, and walked over to them.

"You didn't have to stop talking just because I came in," Alex said, a little insulted.

"Um...you see, it was kind of...private stuff." Danny said. Alex thought for a moment then shrugged.

"Well, whatever. I don't think we were properly introduced back there. I'm Alex Sandry. You already know me as the new kid." Alex said.

"I'm Danny Fenton." Danny said, introducing himself.

"And I'm Tucker Foley." Tucker also introduced himself.

"Nice to know you properly now." Alex said, "I guess you're friends of Sam's?"

"Yup." Danny and Tucker replied in unison.

"Cool. Can I sit with you guys at lunch then? I don't want to be stuck as the new kid who has nowhere to sit at lunch."

"Fine by me."Danny said.

"Me too." Tucker said.

"Thanks. Okay, well I'm going to go shower and change – I'm pretty hungry too after running." Alex said and started to walk past Danny and Tucker.

"You might want to wait a minute or two for the jocks to get out of there first." Tucker warned Alex, "They tend to pick on the unpopulars pretty badly in the locker rooms. Dash especially – and he's in a bad mood today. So it's best to stay at least 50 feet away from him."

"Really? Thanks again – I'll keep that in mind. You mind if I wait with you two?" Alex asked once more.

"Sure." Danny replied. The three of them waited until they heard all of the loud voices exit the locker room.

"Okay, the jockstraps are gone. It's safe for us now." Tucker said, and started walking. Alex followed him but Danny didn't move.

"Danny, are you coming?" Alex inquired.

"No, I prefer to shower alone." Danny said back.

"Mr. Modesty." Tucker commented quietly and rolled his eyes. Alex just shrugged, turned, and kept walking. Alex and Tucker showered and put on non-sweaty clothes, then left the locker room for lunch. They got to the cafeteria and found Sam waiting for them at an empty table. They walked over to the table, greeted Sam, put their bags down on the bench opposite her, then walked over to the lunch line. Alex and Tucker grabbed trays, got in line, and waited to get served. About five minutes later the lunch lady put some kind of oven-fried chicken and instant mashed potatoes on their trays, and they walked back over to the table Sam was sitting at.

"How do they get the chicken to turn blue?" Alex asked Tucker as he cautiously prodded the dark-colored chicken thigh on his tray.

"Dude, your guess is as good as mine. I've seen so much stuff come out of that kitchen, I just ignore the questions that come up in my head and eat it." Tucker replied. Sam flashed him a quick smile and he returned it. Alex noticed this quick interaction and looked questioningly between Tucker and Sam for a brief second – but only a brief second.

"Danny showering alone?" Sam asked, breaking the short silence.

"Yup, as always." Tucker replied. Sam nodded and went back to eating her tofu salad. At that moment, Sam saw Danny walk into the cafeteria. He searched around a little bit and his eyes eventually found Sam's. Knowing where to sit, Danny also got in line to get his lunch. About five minutes later, he joined everyone else at the table.

"So, Alex." Danny started, and Alex looked at him.

"Where are you from? I don't think I've seen you around Amity Park at all."

"Well, I've only lived here for about a month. I used to live in Cresswell, but I didn't really like the schools. Plus, all of the ghost activity in Amity park has been all over the news lately," Danny, Sam, and Tucker all stiffened slightly at the mention of "ghost activity", "and I'm sort of interested in the paranormal. So I decided to move here. See if I could see anything interesting." Alex concluded. Danny, Sam, and Tucker quickly exchanged sideward glances as Alex finished his last sentence, then quietly went back to eating.

"Well, you definitely came to the right place." Sam said quietly, looking off into space.

Alex looked quizzically at his peers with the sudden mood-shift into passive nonchalance. He decided to turn his attention back to his tray, guessing he had hit a sensitive note. However, with his attention not on talking, Alex noticed several tables from around the cafeteria staring straight at him. As he made eye contact with them, they turned away and went back to gossiping. Alex looked at Danny, Sam, and Tucker; they had noticed too. They each had a very irritated look on their faces. Sam breathed out heavily.

"Well, I guess you're interesting to the popular crowd." She said, her voice dripping with annoyance.

"It's not your fault. The thing is, if you haven't already figured out, were not exactly the top of the High School totem pole." Danny said.

"So all of the 'A-Listers' are probably gossiping about how you made 'the biggest new kid mistake ever' by hanging out with us." Tucker said. Sam rolled here eyes. Alex glanced around him once more, then looked back down at his tray. He sighed.

"I was never one for popularity. I personally hate how people divide themselves up like that, it is so stupid and shallow. You don't have to be popular to make friends. The way I see it, I just made the best possible choice I could've made on my first day at a new school." Alex said. Danny, Sam, and Tucker were slightly surprised, but also relieved. Sam especially – there was at least one more kid on the planet who knew the "A-List" for the death trap it was.

The group sat and ate in silence, not really knowing what else to say, and the bell concluding lunch eventually rang. They all got up, emptied their trays, and left the cafeteria.

"See you in study hall." Danny said to Tucker as he started walking to History. Tucker nodded, then headed to English in the opposite direction.

"Are you going to History?" Alex asked Danny as he was walking.

"Yup."

"Okay, that's what I have next. I'll just follow you." Alex said, then followed Danny off to Mrs. Surnto's room for the next period.


End file.
